Oh. My. God. The Toronado furnished us with a lovely and tasty, if sometimes deafeningly loud, evening. Three rounds is all it took to make all three of us a bit loopy, though Ken was the furthest gone, by far.

I'm feeling a bit lazy at the moment so I won't go ito too much detail on these beers, but all I can say is that after drinking the Unibroue Ed.2004, Adam and I though it would be impossible to beat as a favorite. But then I ordered the Carolus Noel. Oh. My. God! Absolute heaven on the palate. So much going on in this beer.

More on this later.

_________________________
"I wish I had documented more…" said nobody on their death bed, ever.

I can't wait for the barleywine festival now. If just to return to Toronado and their amazing selection of beers.

I'll give a brief ranking of all the beers (written on the back of a coaster from toronado):

#8 - Two Rivers Cider - Ken wimped out on us the last round and went for a cider, so it's last place by default, but it was good for a cider
#7 - Alaska Smoked Porter - The only thing of real interest in this beer is it's finish, which is interesting upon first taste, and bitter after a whole glass of it. Not a terrible beer, but nothing special.
#6 - Ommegang Three Philosophers - Fairly complex flavor, but the finish was a little too hoppy and dry
#5 - Speakeasy Godfather (barleywine) - I had not tried barleywines before this evening, so I really liked the flavor of this one. Maybe a little bitter, but only in comparison to the much better Anchor Foghorn.
#4 - Schreider Aventinus - I only had a small sip of this one, but I really liked it. - A dark wheat beer with a somewhat straightforward but definitely not boring taste. Very satisfying - especially in the huge glass it was served in (I think that's what did Ken in). #3 - Anchor Old Foghorn (barleywine) - Well balanced, fruity, and just plain tasty. This was the agreed upon champ of round number 1.
#2 - Unibroue Edition 2004 - Holy crap this is an awesome beer! Smelled sort of like spiced cider, with a fittingly fruity taste with hints of apple and nutmeg. Great body, great balance of fruit and spice, and just a very easy drinking beer. After we'd finished this off (the king of the first 2 rounds), I told Peter I'd be very surprised if we could top this one. Then along came...

#1 - Het Anker Gouden Carolus Noel - It smelled like a muscat, and one might think it would be overly sweet judging from the smell, but what an amazingly delicious beer! Sweet (but not overly so), with a luxuriously creamy taste. Like Peter said: Heaven on your palate!

Overall a great night out. Evidently Peter has found a place online that sells the Het Anker for $10.40 for a 750mL. Going to have to get a few bottles of that!

I will agree with Adam's post in all conditions. Needless to say, I should NOT have had that cider... Oh my god, that was the worst hangover I've ever had. There's a reason I wasn't around at all yesterday. The Aventinus was really tasty. (it wasn't THAT huge a glass, just a half litre...) BTW, I should mention that I don't drink often, and weigh in the neighborhood of 125 lbs. That excuses me somewhat for being totally wasted on 3 beers, right?

OK, finally I feel like I can start posting here. Before today I had no idea where all the great beers you guys were talking about could actually be purchased. In Ontario (Canada) the government runs all the beer and liquor stores, and practically speaking the beer stores are run by Molsons and Labatts.

So... stopped in the beer store today and was surprised to find that Unibroue products had magically appeared on the shelves. Given the "guns & axioms" thread going on I figured "Trois Pistoles" (strong dark) should be the first purchase.

Just poured one and took a few sips -- WOW. Don't know how it figures in the grand scheme of things and don't pretend to be able to make a critical review, but the complexity of tastes was a real eye-opener. More like a rich sauce or a real fine wine than the kind of taste I'm used to getting in a beer.